The next public meeting will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 14 at Ellis Elementary School in Rockford. The attributes of a few top U.S. cities will be reviewed, ...

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What's nextThe next public meeting will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 14 at Ellis Elementary School in Rockford. The attributes of a few top U.S. cities will be reviewed, and Rockford will be measured against them. The aim is to develop a vision and strategies to turn Rockford and the region around.

Rockford cannot become a top tier community if turf wars, perceived slights and enormous egos are allowed to derail the process.

Shared values ought to trump disagreements. Shared values should trump personal animosity. Arriving at those shared values and playing that trump card are among the challenges facing Transform Rockford, the initiative that aims to get Rockford off the miserable lists and on to the desirable lists.

Tom Gendron, chairman and CEO of Woodward Inc. and the driving force behind Transform Rockford, says "it is no longer acceptable" for civic, business and elected officials to feud in public. When was it ever acceptable? It hasn't been, but that hasn't stopped "dysfunctional behavior" among some of the most influential men in town to become embarrassingly public.

You can add "dysfunctional behavior" and "lack of action" to the brutal facts about crime, poverty and unemployment that Gendron and other leaders of Transform Rockford highlighted during a Nov. 14 meeting at the Coronado Performing Arts Center. About 1,400 people attended that night, a sign that the community cares about turning things around.

Gendron made the remark about dysfunctional behavior in a room full of civic, business and elected officials. He was the keynote speaker at Wednesday night's Rockford Area Economic Development Council annual meeting at Giovanni's Restaurant and Convention Center.

We're sure all the officials in town want to transform Rockford. Too often, however, it seems more important for them to get credit for something insignificant than to actually do something significant. There is no shortage of good ideas, but there is a shortage of turning ideas into reality. Hence the "lack of action" Gendron bemoans. To emphasize that point, he mentioned that more than 40 studies on how to improve Rockford have been done since 1986. Studies that, mostly, have been allowed to gather dust.

That doesn't mean there hasn't been success. Gendron talked about "random acts of good work." Those random acts need to be aligned for maximum community benefit.

It's personal for Gendron. He is a Guilford High School graduate and has about four dozen family members living in the area. He wants the best for them.

He also wants the best for his company. Woodward is building a $300 million factory to make airplane parts in Loves Park. It is the Fort Collins, Colo., company's largest investment ever.

The data collected by a site selection company told Gendron that this was not the place to be. His heart, however, did. It was the workers at the Loves Park facility who helped turn Woodward into a winner in the business world. The strength of that work force trumped the data Gendron was given.

He has a lot at stake personally and professionally in turning the community around, as do we all.

Page 2 of 2 - Everyone has a role and everyone should be included in the process. It's difficult to envision what total inclusion should look like because we haven't seen that here. Transform Rockford officials are reaching out and talking to people you don't expect to see at annual dinners.

Yet you can't ignore the money men whose business acumen and philanthropy benefit the community. Transform Rockford must work to avoid inadvertently fostering the dysfunctional behavior it condemns by allowing some influential individuals to sit at the head table while regulating others to the kids' table.

We don't expect long-time adversaries to become BFFs, but we do expect them to set aside their differences and make this community a better place. Too much is at stake not to.